Hello, and welcome to today's history lesson.

My name is Mr. Merrett, I'm your guide through today's lesson.

So let's get started.

Today's lesson looks at the Norman England historic environment is going to focus on Pevensey and the Bayeux Tapestry, and by the end of the day's lesson we'll be able to describe how the Bayeux Tapestry shows the Norman landing at Pevensey.

In order to do that we need to use some key terms, and our key terms for today are motte-and-bailey castle and pillaging.

A motte-and-bailey castle is a type of castle built by the Normans with a high earthen mound known as mottes, and a courtyard known as a bailey.

It was also protected by a strong timber palisade, which effectively is a fence with wooden spikes.

Pillaging means robbing a place using violence, especially in wartime.

Today's lesson will consist of four separate learning cycles, and our first learning cycle is looking at the building of motte-and-bailey castles.

So let's get started.

Now, the Bayeux Tapestry is a 70-meter by 50-centimeter embroidery created in the 1070s, and it tells the story of the Norman Conquest of England from the perspective of the Normans.

Although it's called a tapestry, technically it's an embroidery but either term is fine.

It was commissioned by Bishop Odo of Bayeux, William the Conqueror's half-brother, that is, as a gift for William, designed to be displayed in the newly built Bayeux Cathedral.

And there are 58 scenes in the tapestry.

It's remarkable for its beauty and the fact that, despite being 1,000 years old, what remains is almost fully intact and in really good condition as well.

There is a final section which we believe showed William's coronation that's been lost, there's about three metres, we estimate, of the Bayeux Tapestry missing but the rest is still there and for something 1,000 years old, made of perishable materials, that's genuinely incredible.

Now, Pevensey is named in the Bayeux Tapestry in scene 38, and Pevensey and Hastings are the only English towns mentioned in the later parts of the tapestry.

On the screen in front of you, we can see scene 38, and we can see the Norman ships approaching Pevensey, and Pevensey is written above one of the ships there.

Okay, let's have a quick check for understanding now.

So, I'd like you to identify the two English towns that are named in the Bayeux Tapestry.

Are they Dover, Hastings, Pevensey, or Portsmouth? Make your choices now.

Okay, if you chose B and C, then very well done.

Those are the correct answers.

Now, in scene 45 of the Bayeux Tapestry, a motte-and-bailey castle is shown being constructed, and that's just on the screen there in front of you.

Now, although the tapestry labels it as Hastings, some historians have speculated that this may instead show the building of the first Norman motte-and-bailey castle in England, which was located at Pevensey.

And the Normans went on to build somewhere in the vicinity of 800 motte-and-bailey castles across England.

A simple motte-and-bailey castle could be constructed within one or two weeks using unskilled labourers, and these castles were frequently built by Anglo-Saxons, almost certainly unwillingly, who were the very people that the castle was designed to keep out.

The mottes was a raised mound of earth that was between three and 30 metres in height, and between 30 and 90 metres in diameter.

It's worth pointing out that very few mottes could be considered enormous in height; it was less than 7% of mottes in England were taller than 10 metres, so the vast majority did not reach those lofty heights.

In actual fact, about 69% of them were actually less than five metres tall, but they were protected by other means.

Mottes were surrounded by a ditch around the base, from which much of the earth for the motte was used.

And a keep was also built on top of the mottes, which, depending on its size, could house just a few soldiers or up to a lord and his family, alongside their servants and the soldiers as well.

A motte offered the defending Normans unobstructed views of the surrounding lands, and being made of earth, was essentially fireproof as well.

Now the bailey was an enclosed courtyard surrounded by a palisade and a ditch.

This area housed the people and structures needed to maintain the castle's economic activity, such as the kitchens, the barracks, the chapel, the forge, as well as a variety of other buildings.

The motte and the bailey could be connected by a wooden bridge, a falling bridge as it was known, or more commonly in England, by steps cut into the motte.

Whenever possible, the ditches would be filled with water from nearby rivers to create an additional layer of defence.

Despite these common features, motte-and-bailey castles demonstrated a great deal of variety in their design, and that was due to the fact that engineers took into account the threat level where the castle was being built, and also the natural resources and features of the landscape that were available to them.

As a really good example, the castle at Pevensey used the existing Roman fort of Anderitum to create an additional and imposing line of defence.

The large interior was also later converted into two baileys.

Okay, let's have another check for understanding now.

So, where was the first Norman motte-and-bailey castle built in England? Was it Hastings, in London, or in Pevensey? Make your choice now.

Okay, if you chose C, then very well done.

That's the correct answer.

Let's go for our first task for today.

So there's table on the screen in front of you, and what I'd like you to do is to complete the table by adding the features of mottes and baileys into the correct column.

And the features are down the side of the screen there for you, so just read through those and place them in the correct column.

Pause the video while you complete this task, and I'll see you again in just a moment.

Okay, welcome back.

I hope you got on okay with that task.

Let's think about what you should have said then.

So your answers should include that mottes were earth mounds, baileys were a courtyard, mottes had a keep, baileys had palisade walls, mottes had observation points, baileys had barracks, and both mottes and baileys had ditches surrounding them.

So hopefully you got all of those correct as well.

All right, let's move on to our next learning cycle of the day, which is looking at Norman preparations.

Now, the Bayeux Tapestry does not simply tell historians what happened when the Normans reached England, in actual fact, the first 37 scenes explain the events leading up to the Norman Conquest.

In particular, scenes 35 to 37 deal with the preparation that the Normans invested into their invasion.

The Normans spent roughly seven months readying themselves to invade England and, as a result, they were very well prepared.

Approximately 600 transport ships had to be built in order to carry the roughly 7,000 men, we estimate about 7,000 men, across the channel; along with their weapons, armour, and supplies.

Incredibly, the Normans also transported roughly 2,500 specially trained war horses, which was an extraordinary feat which had not been seen in northern Europe up to this point.

It's very difficult to transport a horse across water, and to transport this many at one time was effectively unprecedented.

Finally, and possibly most extraordinary of all, the Normans brought with them a prefabricated castle, which they dismantled and then erected in Pevensey on their first day of the invasion.

I always like to think of it as almost like an Ikea set for a castle, all the bits were there, the Normans just had to put it into place.

Now, this level of preparation enabled the Normans to take the initiative once they reached England.

Okay, let's have a check for understanding again now.

So, I'd like you to identify two ways in which the Normans were well-prepared for their invasion of England.

Was it because they brought a pre-built castle with them, that they constructed 600 transport ships, that they made allies of several Anglo-Saxon lords, or that they made allies with several Viking lords? Choose two of those options now.

Okay, if you chose A and B, then very well done those are the correct answers.

Another check for understanding now.

How long did it take William the Conqueror to construct a motte-and-bailey castle at Pevensey? Did he do it in a day, in a week, or in two weeks? Make your choice now.

Okay, if you chose A, then well done that's the correct answer.

Right, let's go for our next task for today.

So I'd like you to look at the scenes from the Bayeux Tapestry showing the preparations that the Normans engaged in before their invasion of England.

And to make it easier, I've actually got four separate screens showing each one of those scenes on the screen right in front of you now in much more detail, so please don't strain your eyes trying to look at these four tiny scenes; there's a page for each one.

Now, what I would like you to do is identify what the Bayeux Tapestry is showing by labelling the boxes with the correct letter.

And I'll show you an example for our first one here, so we can see in our first scene, there are two boxes within this first scene, and down the side of the screen there you've got a variety of different things the Normans are doing, labelled A to F.

All you need to do is put the correct letter into the correct box, so if you think that the first one is Normans carrying wine and weapons in a cart, you'd write the letter A.

So here's our first scene, there's our second scene, the third scene, and our final scene.

So pause the video while you complete this task, and I'll see you again in just a moment.

Okay, welcome back.

Hopefully, you got on okay with that task.

So let's think about what your answers should have included then.

So, in our first scene we can see in this first box that there are Normans chopping down trees, and next to them, we can see that they are carving planks for ships.

So, hopefully, you can see that for yourself as well then.

In our next scene, we can see here that the Normans are actually building the ships, and you can see part of the previous scene next to it as well.

So, hopefully, you can see that the Bayeux Tapestry is almost like a cartoon strip, each scene kind of bleeding into the next one, they're just next to each other.

In our third scene here we can see that the Normans are dragging their ships to the sea, and in our final scene we can see that the Normans are carrying weapons and armour just over there to the left-hand side of that scene, and you can also see that they're carrying wine and weapons in a cart as well.

So, hopefully, you understood what you were seeing with the Bayeux Tapestry there, and you correctly identified all of those different features of it as well.

All right, let's move on to our next learning cycle of today, which is looking at pillaging.

Now, a consequence, a very unfortunate consequence, of war at any point in time really is the devastating impact it has on local non-combatants, and mediaeval warfare was absolutely no different in this regard.

Mediaeval armies almost always pillage the local area as a way of feeding the troops and keeping the soldiers happy through plundering.

It also meant that commanders did not have to pay to transport as much food for their troops, so they didn't have to buy the food initially and then pay for transport as well.

And it also allowed armies to travel faster as they were not burdened with extra supplies.

Naturally, as well, by destroying enemy territory, it also weakened the enemy and inspired terror amongst the local people.

Now, the Bayeux Tapestry does not shy away from showing the Normans pillaging the local Anglo-Saxons.

In scene 40, which is up on the screen here, the Normans are shown seizing food from the area around Hastings, that's on the left-hand side of the image there, and then in scene 42 we can see an image of the Normans feasting.

In scene 41, we can see right there in the middle of the screen, there is a man on horseback saying (speaking foreign language), that's, "Here is Wadard." Wadard we believe, was one of the leaders of one of these pillaging expeditions, so that's why he's there in the middle of these two scenes.

Now, in scene 47 we can see Norman soldiers burning down a house whilst a mother at the front of the house there holds her child's hand and helplessly watches on.

You can see the Normans are depicted as being much larger than the Anglo-Saxon woman and her child, and I suspect this is designed to show you just how overpowering the Norman soldiers were.

They were far more powerful than the local Anglo-Saxons at this point in time, there's very little she can do; her and her child, they just have to watch and let it happen unfortunately.

Now, Sussex, the county that Pevensey is located in was part of the personal domain of King Harold II.

So by pillaging these lands, William the Conqueror would be launching a direct attack on his rival for the throne.

The pillaging of Sussex, as depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry, had a devastating effect on the local area.

It's estimated that the value of the land in Sussex fell by 40% during the first weeks of the Norman Conquest, and many areas had still not fully recovered 20 years later.

The Domesday Book records several villages near Hastings as wasted in 1086, which means that there was nothing of value there.

And examples are things like Bexhill, Filsham and Hollington.

All right, so a check for understanding now.

So this is a discussion-based question, I'd like you to consider how would mediaeval armies benefit from pillaging the lands they were in.

So, pause the video while you consider this, and I'll see you again in just a moment.

Okay, welcome back.

I hope you got on okay with that task.

Let's think about what you could have said then.

So you could have said that it provides food for troops, that it reduces the cost of armies, that it enables armies to travel lighter and therefore faster, it provides wealth for individual soldiers, it reduces the strength of opposing armies, and that it also inspires terror amongst the enemy populace.

If you've got any of those different reasons, then that's absolutely fantastic, but I hope you got at least some of those on the screen there in front of you as well.

And another check for understanding, this is a true or false statement, William prevented his army from engaging in too much pillaging in Sussex, as he wanted to preserve his new territory as much as possible.

Is that true or is that false? Okay, if you chose false, then congratulations that is correct.

In terms of why it's false; well, William's Norman soldiers reduced much of Sussex to a wasteland due to their pillaging.

It's estimated that the value of the land in Sussex fell by 40% during the first weeks of the Norman Conquest, and many areas had still not recovered 20 years later.

Right, let's go to our next task for today.

So, I'd like you to explain two consequences of the Norman army pillaging Sussex.

So, pause the video while you complete that task, and I'll see you again in just a moment.

Okay, welcome back.

I hope you got on okay with that task.

Let's think of what you could have said then.

So, you might have said that one consequence of the Norman army pillaging Sussex was that the value of the land in Sussex fell by 40% in the weeks following the Norman Conquest, and many towns were left wasted.

This tells us that almost half of the wealth of Sussex was taken or destroyed by the Normans.

Another consequence of the Norman army pillaging Sussex was that it enabled the Norman army to gather supplies to feed themselves.

Historians can see this happening in the Bayeux Tapestry.

In scene 40, the Norman army is shown pillaging the area around Hastings for supplies, and in scene 42 they are feasting on the supplies they had stolen.

So, if you've got different consequences to myself, that's absolutely fine, as long as you've explained them, that's the key aspect here.

Right, let's go into our fourth and final learning cycle for today, which is looking at Robert, Count of Mortain.

So Robert, Count of Mortain was half-brother to William the Conqueror and was one of William's most trusted followers.

He was present at the Council of Lillebonne, where the Norman Conquest was planned, and he contributed 120 ships to the invasion, which is more than any other person.

Despite some contemporary sources describing him as being an unintelligent, dull, and quite a brutish man, he successfully completed every task that William assigned to him.

So, clearly, there was something about him that made him a very good follower for William.

He's also one of the very few men who historians can confidently state fought at the Battle of Hastings, and the Bayeux Tapestry displays and names Robert in scene 44, which is on the screen in front of you there, and he is sitting beside his half-brother William.

So on the scene on the screen, we can see William in the middle.

On the right-hand side, holding his sword, is Robert, and to the left is Robert's full brother and therefore William's half-brother, Odo, who was the man who commissioned the creation of the Bayeux Tapestry.

Now, Robert was made Count of Mortain whilst he was still a teenager.

Mortain was a crucial territory which held the southern border of Normandy against the threats of Brittany and Anjou.

And Anjou, in particular, was a traditional enemy of the Normans, so it was a really, really key area that Robert was given power over.

As an experienced and trusted border commander, Robert was granted the strategically important Rape of Pevensey by William.

A rape, just to remind ourselves, a rape is a traditional name for an administrative district in Sussex.

Robert was also granted huge amounts of other lands across England, he actually received 797 manors in total, a manor effectively is like a village or a town.

So, he was given control of nearly 800 towns, and that included most of Cornwall as well.

Due to his vast.

(scoffs) Robert was actually considered by many of his contemporaries, and by many historians, as the Earl of Cornwall, despite never actually being formally given that title.

Due to his vast lands, Robert is one of the richest men to have ever lived in England since 1066.

Despite spending very little of his time there, the Rape of Pevensey contributed 18% of Robert's English income, which made it the second most valuable English territory that Robert possessed after the entirety of Cornwall.

It was almost certainly Robert who began the conversion of the original wooden motte-and-bailey castle in Pevensey to a more permanent stone structure, and he also reinforced the original Roman walls.

Okay, let's have a check for understanding now.

So who was given control of Pevensey Castle and the surrounding land? Was it Robert Count of Mortain, was it Roger of Montgomery, or was it William de Warenne? Make your choice now.

Okay, if you chose A, then very well done that's the correct answer.

And another check for understanding now.

So how was Robert, Count of Mortain related to William the Conqueror? Was he his cousin, his half-brother, or his uncle? Make your choice now.

Okay, if you chose B, then very well done that's the correct answer.

Okay, let's go for our final task for today now, then.

So I'd like you to explain two aspects of the Norman Conquest as told through the Bayeux Tapestry that relate to Pevensey.

So pause the video while you complete this task, and I'll see you again in just a moment.

Okay, welcome back.

Hopefully you got on okay with that task.

Let's think of what you could have said then.

So you could have said, "One aspect of the Norman Conquest as told through the Bayeux Tapestry that relates to Pevensey, is the fact that the area around Pevensey was pillaged by the Norman soldiers.

We can see Norman soldiers pillaging food from Anglo-Saxons in scene 40 and feasting upon it in scene 42, and in scene 47 we can see Norman soldiers burning down an Anglo-Saxon house.

We know that Sussex, where Pevensey is located, was devastated by the Norman invasion.

40% of the value of the land was removed, and several towns, such as Bexhill and Filsham were completely destroyed.

Another aspect of the Norman Conquest as told with the Bayeux Tapestry that relates to Pevensey, is that the Normans built motte-and-bailey castles upon their arrival in England.

In scene 45, we can see the construction of the motte-and-bailey castle at Hastings, although some historians believe that this actually shows the castle at Pevensey.

Pevensey was the first motte-and-bailey castle that the Normans built in England, which they did using prefabricated timber, showing how well prepared they were.

In scenes 35 to 37 of the Bayeux Tapestry, we can see the thorough preparations the Normans undertook prior to their invasion." If you've got different aspects than I've gone through, that's absolutely fine, as long as you've included some of that key detail to support the point you're making, and then you've explained how that detail actually links to the point you're making as well; that would be a really good answer.

Right, let's summarise today's lesson now, then.

So, Pevensey is recorded in the Bayeux Tapestry as the first destination for the Normans upon their invasion of England.

The Normans built the first motte-and-bailey castle in England at Pevensey.

The Bayeux Tapestry shows them constructing a motte-and-bailey castle, some historians think that this is actually a Pevensey Castle.

The Normans spent seven months preparing for their invasion, which the Bayeux Tapestry illustrates.

The Bayeux Tapestry shows the Normans pillaging the lands of Sussex, and the Bayeux Tapestry also shows Robert, Count of Mortain, who was given control of Pevensey Castle and the surrounding land.

Thank you very much for joining me today.

Hopefully, you've enjoyed yourself.

Hope you learned something, and hopefully I'll see you again next time.

Bye-bye.